His hand was on her shoulder. Warm and strong. Sending heat through her, a living warmth that she could not bear.
‘Lizzy?’
She looked up. He was only a foot or two away from her, hunkered down on the rug. She saw him immediately, completely. She saw everything about him in one absolute moment. As if he had always been there.
‘You shouldn’t be here,’ she said. Her voice was thick, as thick as the blood suffocating her veins. ‘Captain Falieri explained to me. He said you would not be allowed to see Ben again.’
The expression in his eyes altered.
‘Well, that depends,’ he said. He was looking at her very deeply, very strangely, right into her eyes.
‘No, it doesn’t,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t depend at all. He said it very clearly. He explained it very clearly. You’re not allowed to see Ben any more.’
From the corner of her eye she could see Ben’s face pucker.
‘Why can’t Tio Rico see me any more?’ he said.
She saw Rico reach out and ruffle Ben’s hair.
‘Your mother’s got it wrong. I’m here, aren’t I?’
It was her turn for her face to pucker.
‘But you shouldn’t be,’ she said fiercely. ‘You can’t be.’
His expression changed again. Something entered his eyes. Something she didn’t want to see.
‘Where else should I be,’ he asked quietly, but with deadliness in his voice, ‘but with my wife and my boy?’
‘No,’ she said. She rocked forward slightly. Denying it. Denying it completely. ‘No,’ she said again.
He looked at her. Looked at her with eyes that chilled her to the bone.
‘Did you really think,’ he asked, in that same quiet, deadly tone, ‘that I would stay away?’
She snapped upright.
‘You’ve got to go!’ she shouted at him. ‘You’ve got to go—right away. Right now. Falieri told me. He told me. So go—go.’
There was a steely glint in his eye. He reached for her hands and hauled her down again. Her eyes were wild, desperate.
‘He told me,’ she said, and there was despair in her voice. ‘He told me everything. He told me about that law—the one that says you can’t marry without the Ruling Prince’s permission. He told me that it meant our marriage was null and void.’
‘Our marriage is real, Lizzy. We made our vows in front of a priest. No one can overturn that.’ Steel was in his voice now.
‘Yes, they can. They can. Your father can overturn it—and that’s what he’s done.’
‘All my father can do is refuse to recognise our marriage within San Lucenzo. He cannot overturn it. He has no power over our marriage, Lizzy. None.’ He spoke steadily, remorselessly.
Her face contorted. ‘Yes, he has. He has. Captain Falieri told me—he told me quite clearly. He’s got absolute power over you. You’ve broken the law, and if you don’t obey him he’ll use that power. And he’ll do it. Captain Falieri said he would do it.’ She swallowed. The stone in her throat was agony. But she spoke, saying the words that had been burnt into her like an agonising brand.
‘He’ll do it, Rico—he’ll strip you of your royalty. He’ll disinherit you. He’ll disbar you from the succession. Take you off the Civil List, freeze all your assets in San Lucenzo. He’ll take everything from you—everything. He’ll leave you with nothing.’
She heard Captain Falieri’s voice tolling in her head. Saying the words that had taken everything from her. All hope. Gone for ever. They had crushed her, crushed her heart, cracking it in pieces.
There was a strange look on Rico’s face. It frightened her. His expression was calm. Very calm. Far too calm.
‘Falieri was wrong. There was something my father could not take from me.’ He paused. Then he spoke. ‘You. He could not take you from me. My wife.’